carry the Biggest Possible Gun. It was for this reason that the 18-in.
gun was introduced in the Autumn of 1914[15] and put on board the new
Battle Cruiser “Furious”; and indeed all was completely arranged for
20-in. guns being placed in the succeeding proposed Battle Cruisers of
immense speed and very light draft of water and _possessing the special
merit of exceeding rapid construction_.
Alas! those in authority went back on it! It was precisely the same
argument that made these same retrograde Lot’s wives go back from oil
to coal. Coal, they said, was good enough and was so safe! Lot’s wife
thought of her toasted muffins. Notice now especially that if a man is
five per cent. before his time he may possibly be accounted a Genius!
but if this same poor devil goes ten per cent. better, then he’s voted
a Crank. Above that percentage, he is stark staring Mad.
(N.B.--I have gone through all these percentages!)
THE WAY TO VICTORY.
_Lord Fisher to the Prime Minister._
HOUSE OF LORDS,
_June 12th, 1917_.
MY DEAR PRIME MINISTER,
In November, 1914, Sir John French came specially from France
to attend the War Council to consider a proposal put forward
by the Admiralty that the British Army should advance along
the sea shore flanked by the British Fleet. Had this proposal
been given effect to, the German Submarine Menace would have
been deprived of much of its strength, and many Enemy Air
Raids on our coast would have been far more difficult. The
considerations which made me urge this proposal at that time
have continuously grown stronger, and to-day I feel it my duty
to press upon you the vital necessity of a joint Naval and
Military operation of this kind. I do not feel justified in
arguing the Military advantages which are, however, so obvious
as to be patent to the whole world, nor the political advantage
of getting in touch with Holland along the Scheldt, but solely
from a Naval point of view the enterprise is one that ought to
be undertaken with all our powers without further delay. The
present occasion is peculiarly favourable, as we can call upon
the support of the whole American Fleet.
Yours truly,
(Signed) _Fisher_.
* * * * *
36, BERKELEY SQUARE,
LONDON,
_July 11th, 1917_.
MY DEAR PRIME MINISTER,
In putting before your urgent notice the following two
propositions, I have consulted no one, and seen no experts. It
is the emanation of my own brain.
Owing to two years of departmental apathy and inconceivable
strategical as well as tactical blunders, we are wrongly raided
in the air, and being ruined under water.
I remember a very famous speech of yours where you pointed out
that we had been fourteen times “Too Late!”
This letter is to persuade you against two more “Too lates”:
(1) The Air:
You want two ideas carried out:
(_a_) A multitude of bombing aircraft made like Ford cars (so
therefore very expeditiously obtained thereby).
(_b_) The other type of aircraft constantly improving to get
better fighting qualities.
The Air is going to win the War owing to the sad and grievous
other neglects.
(2) The Water:
Here we have a very simple proposition. Now that America has
joined us, we have a simply overwhelming sea preponderance!
Are you not going to do anything with this?
Make the German Fleet fight, and you win the war!
How can you make the German Fleet fight? By undertaking on a huge
scale, with an immense Armada of special rapidly-built craft, an
operation that threatens the German Fleet’s existence!
That operation, on the basis in my mind, is one absolutely sure of
success, because the force employed is so gigantic as to be negligible
of fools.
If you sweep away the German Fleet, you sweep away all else and end the
War, as then you have the Baltic clear and a straight run of some 90
miles only from the Pomeranian Coast to Berlin, and it is the Russian
Army we want to enter Berlin, not the English or French.
Yours truly,
(Signed) FISHER.
_Lord Fisher to a Friend._
_February 28th, 1918._
MY DEAR FRIEND, ...
Quite recently we lost a golden opportunity of wrecking the
residue of the German Fleet and wrecking the Kiel Canal,
when the main German Fleet went to Riga with the German army
embarked in a huge fleet of transports and so requiring all the
Destroyers and Submarines of Germany to protect it.
Well, in reply to your question, this is what I would do now:
I would carry out the policy enunciated in the Print on the
Baltic Project which was submitted early in the war[16] and
again reverted to in my letter to the Prime Minister, dated
June 2nd, 1916. Sow the North Sea with mines as thick as
the leaves in Vallombrosa! That blocks effectually the Kiel
Canal, if continued laying of these mines is always perpetually
going on with damnable pertinacity! Then I guarantee to
force a passage into the Baltic in combination with a great
Military co-operation, but that co-operation must not be the
co-operation of the Walcheren Expedition!
“Lord Chatham with his sword drawn
Was waiting for Sir Richard Strachan,
Sir Richard, longing to be at ’em!
Was waiting for the Earl of Chatham!”
It has got to be chiefly a Naval Job! And the Army will be
landed by the Navy! The Navy will guarantee landing the Army
on the Coast of Pomerania and elsewhere. Three feints, any of
which can be turned into a Reality.
Further in detail I won’t go, but I can guarantee success.
Have I ever failed yet? It’s an egotistical question, but I
never have!
What a d--d fool I should be to brag now if I wasn’t certain!
Yours, etc.,
(Signed) FISHER.
P.S.--I have heard some Idiots say that the Baltic Sea is now
impregnable because of German mines in it. No earthly System of
mines can possibly avoid being destroyed. We can get into the
Baltic whenever we like to do so. I guarantee it.
“SOW THE NORTH SEA WITH MINES.”
(_Written in November, 1914_).
The German policy of laying mines has resulted in denying our access
to their harbours; has hampered our Submarines in their attempts to
penetrate into German waters; and we have lost the latest type of
“Dreadnought” (“Audacious”) and many other war vessels and over 70
merchant vessels of various sizes.
As we have only laid a patch of mines off Ostend (whose position we
have notified), the Germans have free access to our coasts to lay fresh
mines and to carry out raids and bombardments.
We have had, to our own immense disadvantage in holding up our
coastwise traffic, to extinguish the navigation lights on our East
Coast, so as to impede German ships laying mines. At times we have had
completely to stop our traffic on the East Coast because of German
mines; and the risk is so great that freights in some cases have
advanced 75 per cent.--quite apart from shortness of tonnage.
The Germans have laid mines off the North of Ireland, and may further
hamper movements of shipping in the Atlantic.
The German mine-laying policy has so hindered the movements of the
British Fleet, by necessitating wide detours, that to deal with a raid
such as the recent Hartlepool affair involves enormous risks, while
at the same time the German Fleet can navigate to our coast with the
utmost speed and the utmost confidence. They know that we have laid no
mines, and the position, of course, of their own mines is accurately
charted by them--indeed we know this as a fact. Our Fleet, on the
contrary, has to confine its movements to deep water, or slowly to
grope its way behind mine-sweeping vessels.
_There is no option but to adopt an offensive mine-laying policy._
It is unfortunate, however, that we have only 4,900 mines at present
available. On February 1st (together with 1,000 mines from Russia) we
shall have 9,110, and on March 1st we shall have 11,100 mines. This
number, however, is quite inadequate, but every effort is being made to
get more. Also FAST Mine-Layers are being procured, as the present ones
are very slow and their coal supply very small. So at present we can
only go very slow in mine-laying; but carefully selected positions can
be proceeded with.
We must certainly look forward to a big extension of German mine-laying
in the Bristol Channel and English Channel and elsewhere, in view of
Admiral Tirpitz’s recent statements in regard to attacking our commerce.
Neutral vessels now pick up Pilots at the German island of Sylt, and
take goods unimpeded to German ports--ostensibly carrying cotton,
but more probably copper, etc., and thus circumventing our economic
pressure.[17]
_This would be at once stopped effectually by a mine-laying
policy._
Nor could any German vessels get out to sea at speed as at present;
they would have to go slow, preceded by mine-sweeping vessels, and so
would be exposed to attack by our Submarines.
[Illustration: THE SUBMARINE MONITOR M 1,
which lately returned from a successful cruise in the Mediterranean.
She is designed to fight above or below water. She carries a 12-inch
gun firing an 850-lb. shell, which can be discharged when only the
muzzle of the gun is above water.]
A BIRTHDAY LETTER.
_Lord Fisher to a Friend._
_January 25th, 1918._
MY DEAR FRIEND,
A letter to-day on my birthday from an eminent Engineer, cheers
me up by saying that never has France been so vigorously
governed as she is now by her present Prime Minister,
Clemenceau, and that he is my age, 77.
The Conduct of the War, both by Sea and Land, has been
perilously effete and wanting in Imagination and Audacity since
May, 1915.
I know these words of mine give you the stomachache, but so did
Jeremiah the Jews when he kept on telling them in his chapter
v., verse 31:
“The prophets prophesy falsely,
And the priests [the unfit] bear rule by their means,
And my people love to have it so,
And what will ye do in the end thereof?”
(Why! Send for Jephthah!)
“And Jephthah said unto the elders of Gilead”
(who came supplicating, asking him to come back as their
captain)
“Did ye not hate me and expel me?
And why are ye come unto me now when ye are in distress?”
And the elders of Gilead said unto Jephthah:
“We turn again to thee now, that thou mayest go with us and fight!”
By Sea, when the German Fleet took the German Army to Riga, we
had a wonderful sure certainty of destroying the German Fleet
and the Kiel Canal, but we let it slip because there were
risks. (As if war could be conducted without risks!) Considered
Rashness in war is Prudence, and Prudence in war is usually a
synonym for imbecility!
Observe the Mediterranean! The whole Sea Power of France and
Italy is collected in the Mediterranean to fight the puny
Austrian Fleet, but they haven’t fought it. Not only that, but
hundreds of vessels of the English Navy are perforce out in the
Mediterranean to aid them; and yet the German ships, “Goeben”
and “Breslau,” known to be fast, powerful and efficient, emerge
from the Dardanelles with impunity and massacre two of our
Monitors--never meant to be out there and totally unfitted
for such service--and two obsolete British Destroyers have to
put up a fight! But God intervened and sent the “Goeben” and
“Breslau” on top of mines. It was thus the act of God and not
the act of our Sea Fools that kept these two powerful German
ships from going to the coast of Syria, where they would have
played Hell with Allenby and our Palestine Army.
We have pandered to our Allies from the very beginning of the
War, and yet practically we find most of the money and have
found four million soldiers, and a thousand millions sterling
lent to Russia have been lent in vain.
You know as well as I do that our Expeditionary Force should
have been sent in August, 1914, to Antwerp and not to France;
we should then have held the Belgian Coast and the Scheldt, but
this was too tame--we were all singing:
“Malbrook s’en va-t’en guerre!”
The Baltic Project was scoffed at, though it had the
impregnable sanction of Frederick the Great, and the project
was turned down in November, 1914; and now the Germans, because
of their possession of the Baltic as a German lake, are going
to annex all the Islands they want that command Russia and
Sweden, and the Russian Fleet, with its splendid “Dreadnoughts”
and Destroyers disappear and eight British Submarines have been
sunk. Ichabod!
Yours truly,
FISHER.
THE GERMAN SUBMARINE MENACE.
_Lord Fisher to a Friend._
_March 2nd, 1918._
MY DEAR “MR. FAITHFUL,”
You write anxious to have some connected statement in regard to
the whole history of the German Submarine Menace.
Now, the first observation thereon is the oft-repeated
indisputable statement that no private person whatever can hope
to fight successfully any Public Department. So even if you had
the most conclusive evidence of effete apathy such as at first
characterised the dealing with this German Submarine Menace,
yet you would to the World at large be completely refuted by
a rejoinder in Parliament of departmental facts. Nevertheless
here is a bit of Naval History.
In December, 1915, the Prime Minister (Mr. Asquith)
unexpectedly came up to me in the Lobby of the House of
Commons, and said he was anxious to consult me about Naval
affairs, and he would take an early opportunity of seeing me!
However, he must have been put off this for I never saw him.
A month afterwards I pressed him in writing to see Sir John
Jellicoe in regard to the paucity both of suitable apparatus
and of suitable measures to cope with the German Submarine
Menace; after much opposition the Prime Minister himself sent
for Sir John Jellicoe and he appeared before the War Council.
This is my Memorandum at that time, dated February 7th, 1916:
MEMORANDUM.
“I have just heard that, notwithstanding the opposition to it,
Sir John Jellicoe will attend the War Council at 11.30 a.m.
next Friday. That he may have strength and power to overcome
all ‘the wiles of the Devil’ is my fervent prayer.
“That there has been signal failure since May, 1915, to
continue the Great Push previous to that date of building fast
Destroyers, fast Submarines, Mine Sweepers and small Craft
generally is absolutely indisputable.
“Above all, it was criminal folly and inexcusable on the part
of the Admiralty to allow skilled workmen (20,000 of them)
to be taken away from shipyards. Also it was inexcusable and
weak to give up the Admiralty command of steel and other
shipbuilding materials.
“Kitchener instantly cancelled the order to take men from the
shipyards when it was attempted by his subordinates while I was
First Sea Lord. He saw the folly of it!
“Again, deferring the shipbuilding that was in progress was
fatuous. I saw myself two fast Monitors (each of them a
thousand tons advanced) from which all the workmen had been
called off. A few months afterwards there was feverish and
wasteful haste to complete them. So was it with the five
fast big Battle Cruisers of very light draught of water. All
similarly delayed.
“Well! Jellicoe, a ‘No Talker,’ at the War Council was opposed
to a mass of ‘All Talkers,’ so he did not make a good fight;
but when he got back to the Grand Fleet at Scapa Flow he
remembered himself and wrote a most excellent Memorandum, which
put himself right.
“However, a wordy war is no use; nothing but a cataclysm will
stop our ‘Facilis descensus Averni.’”
We must by some political miracle swallow up Korah, Dathan and
Abiram and have a fresh lot. In Parliament we have nothing but
the _suggestio falsi_ and the _suppressio veri_! A little bit
of truth skilfully disguised:
“A truth that’s told with bad intent,
Beats any lie you can invent.”
In reply to your question with reference to Mr. Bonar Law’s
corrected statement in Hansard, the Printer’s date at the
bottom of the Submarine Paper,[18] sent to the Prime Minister
and First Lord of the Admiralty is January, 1914, seven months
before the War.
Yours always,
FISHER.
_Lord Fisher to Sir Maurice Hankey, K.C.B., Secretary to the War
Cabinet._
19, ST. JAMES’S SQUARE.
MY DEAR HANKEY,
In reply to your inquiry, my five points of peace (as regards
Sea war only) are:
(1) The German High Sea Fleet to be delivered up intact.
(2) Ditto, every German Submarine.
(3) Ditto, Heligoland.
(4) Ditto, the two flanking islands of Sylt and Borkum.
(5) No spot of German Territory in the wide world to be permitted!
It would infallibly be a Submarine Base.
Yours,
(Signed) FISHER,
_October 21st, 1918_.
(Trafalgar Day).
Why we were not as relentless in carrying out our Peace requirements at
Sea as on Land is positively incomprehensible.
The German Fleet was not turned over and was afterwards sunk at
pleasure by the German crews. I don’t feel at all sure that every
German submarine, complete and incomplete, was handed over. Every
oil engine ought to have been cleared out of Germany. Through some
extraordinary chain of reasoning, absolutely incomprehensible, the
three Islands of Heligoland, Sylt and Borkum were not claimed and
occupied. In view of the prodigious development of Aircraft it was
imperative that these Islands should be in the possession of England.
All this to me is absolutely astounding. The British Fleet won the
War, and the British Fleet didn’t get a single thing it ought to have,
excepting the everlasting stigma amongst our Allies, of being fools,
in allowing the German Fleet to be sunk under our noses, because we
mistook the Germans for gentlemen.
_The Miracle of the Peace_
(_that took place at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th Month!_)
only equalled by the Destruction of Sennacherib’s Army, on the night
described in the 25th verse of the 19th chapter of Second Book of
Kings! The heading of the chapter is “_An Angel slayeth the Assyrians_.”
“That night the Angel of the Lord went forth ... in the morning
behold they were all dead corpses!”
A Cabinet Minister, in an article (after the Armistice) in a newspaper,
stated that the Allies were at their last gasp when the Armistice
occurred as it did as a Miracle! for Marshal Foch had been foiled on
the strategic flank by the inability of the American Army to advance
and the unavoidable consequences of want of experience in a new Army
(_immense but inexperienced--they were slaughtered in hecatombs and
died like flies!_) and so the American advance on the Verdun flank was
held up, and Haig therefore had to batter away instead (and well he did
it!). And though the British Army entered Mons, yet the German Army was
efficient, was undemoralised, and had immense lines of resistance in
its rear before reaching the Rhine! There was no Waterloo, no Sedan, no
Trafalgar (though there could have been one on October 21st, 1918, for
the German Naval Mutiny was known! Sir E. Geddes said so in a Mansion
House Speech on November 9th, 1918). There was no Napoleon--no Nelson!
but “The Angel of the Lord went forth....”
_Lord Fisher to a Friend._
_March 27th, 1918._
MY DEAR BLANK,
It has been a most disastrous war for one simple reason--that
our Navy, with a sea supremacy quite unexampled in the history
of the world (we are five times stronger than the enemy) has
been relegated into being a “Subsidiary Service!”...
What _crashes_ we have had
Tirpitz--Sunk.
Joffre--Stranded.
Kitchener--Drowned.
Lord French-- }
Lord Jellicoe-- } Made Viscounts.
Lord Devonport-- }
Fisher--Marooned.
Sir W. Robertson--The “Eastern Command” in Timbuctoo.
Bethmann-Hollweg--}
Asquith-- } Torpedoed.
Heaven bless you! I am here walking 10 miles a day! and eating
my heart out!
And a host of minor prophets promoted. (We don’t shoot now! we
promote!)
Yours, etc.,
(Signed) FISHER.
27/3/18.
_To Lord Fisher from an Admirer._
_21st November, 1918._
DEAR LORD FISHER,
We are just back after taking part in the most wonderful
episode of the war, and my heart is very full, and I feel that
the extraordinary surrender of the Flower of the German Fleet
is so much due to your marvellous work and insight--in giving
England the Fleet she has--that I must write you!
I suppose the world will never again see such a sight--a line
of 14 heavy, modern, capital ships, with their guns fore and
aft in securing position, in perfect order and keeping good
station, quietly giving themselves up without a blow or a
murmur. Surely such a humiliating and ignominious end could
never have been even thought of in all history past or present.
Had I been in a private ship I would have used every endeavour
to get you up to see the final fulfilment of your life’s work.
As it is, I can’t think it was very gracious of the authorities
not to have ensured your presence. But history will give you
your due.
Forgive this effusion, and please don’t bother to answer it.
But _I_ realise that to-day’s victory was yours, and it is
iniquitous that you were not here to see it.
Your affectionate and devoted admirer,
----.
_To Lord Fisher from Admiral Moresby._
FAREHAM,
_July 9th, 1918_.
DEAR OLD FRIEND,
Just a line. One of our “Article writing” Admirals sent me
one of them on the progress of the war! Your name was not
mentioned, nor your services alluded to! I returned it,
saying it was the play without Hamlet. You might be wrong,
or despised, but you could not be _ignored_. With our Navy
revolutionised, Osborne created, obsolete cruisers scrapped,
naval base shifted from Portland to Rosyth, Dreadnoughts and
Battle Cruisers invented, Falkland Islands victory, and so on,
he might as well talk of Rome without Cæsar. He replied and
said you were an Enigma, and that covered it all! There is some
truth in this, for such are all born leaders of men, from our
Master, the greatest Enigma of all (who made thee thyself, who
gave thee power to do these things), down to all who can see
what is going on on the other side of the hill....
Yours ever,
(Signed) J. MORESBY.
POSTSCRIPT
Last night, in finishing off the examination of several boxes of old
papers, I came across a forgotten letter written a fortnight after the
Battle of Trafalgar from the “Dreadnought” (which ship participated
in the Battle). On mentioning it I was told there was a “Dreadnought”
in the Navy at the time of Henry VIII. I think one of the Docks at
Portsmouth dates from that time, and the “Dreadnought” may have been
docked in it. I love the delicious little touch at the end of this
letter where everyone seals their letters with black wax in memory
of Nelson, and the prayer and poetry are lovely. And where his
acquaintance in Collingwood’s Ship “had been shortened by the Hand of
Death,” and
“Roll softly ye Waves,
Blow gently ye Winds
O’er the bosom of the deep where the bodies of the Heroes rest,
until the Great Day, when all that are in their grave shall
hear the Voice of the Son of God, when thou O Sea! shall give
up thy dead to Life Immortal, and thou O Britain be grateful
to thy defenders! that the Widows and Orphans of thy deceased
Warriors be precious in thy sight--Soothe their sorrows,
alleviate their distresses and provide for their wants by
anticipating their wishes.”
(The Straits of Gibraltar the writer spells “_Streights_.”) He adds
“Our splendid Success has been dearly bought. Our gallant Chief is
dead. In the arms of Victory fell the greatest Hero that ever any age
or Nation ever produced.”
APPENDIX I
LORD FISHER’S GREAT NAVAL REFORMS
_By_ W. T. STEAD
“He being dead yet speaketh.”--_Hebrews_ xi. 4.
[The following account of Lord Fisher’s Naval Reforms is extracted from
_The Review of Reviews_ for February, 1910.]
I briefly summarise Lord Fisher’s four great reforms:
1. The introduction of the nucleus crew system.
2. The redistribution of the fleets in accordance with modern
requirements.
3. The elimination of inefficient fighting vessels from the Active List
of the Navy.
4. The introduction of the all-big-gun type of battleship and
battleship-cruiser.
To these four cardinal achievements must be added the system of common
entry and training for all executive officers and the institution and
development of the Naval War College and the Naval War Staff.
By the nucleus crew system all our available ships of war are ready
for instant mobilisation. From two-fifths to three-fifths of their
complement, including all the expert and specialist ratings, are on
board, so that they are familiar with the ship and her armament. The
rest of the crew is held in constant readiness to come on board. Fisher
once aired, in after-dinner talk, the daring idea that the time would
come when the First Lord of the Admiralty would be supreme over the
War Office, and would, as in the days of the Commonwealth, fill up
deficiencies in ships’ crews by levies from the territorial forces.
Landsmen can serve guns as well as sailors.
The second great revolution was necessitated by the alteration in the
centre of international gravity occasioned by the growth of the German
Navy. Formerly the Mediterranean Fleet ranked first in importance. Now
the Home Fleet concentrates in its four divisions all the best fighting
ships we possess. It is hardly too much to say, as M. Hanotaux publicly
declared, that Admiral Fisher had, by concentration and redistribution,
magnified our fighting naval strength by an amount unparalleled
in a hundred years. That the fighting efficiency of the Fleet has
been doubled under Fisher’s _régime_ is to understate the facts. To
say it has been trebled would hardly be over the mark. And what is
the most marvellous thing of all is that this enormous increase of
efficiency was achieved not only without any increase of the estimates,
but in spite of a reduction which amounted to nearly five millions
sterling--three and a half millions actual and one and a half millions
automatic increase checked.
This great economy was largely achieved by the scrapping of ships too
weak to fight and too slow to run away. One hundred and fifty obsolete
and useless ships were removed from the effective list; some were
sold, others were broken up, while a third class were kept in store
for contingencies. They were lame ducks, all useless in war, costly
in peace, consuming stores, wasting the time of officers and men. The
obsolete ships were replaced on foreign stations by vessels which could
either fight or fly....
Of the introduction of the “Dreadnought” and super-“Dreadnoughts” I
have already spoken.
Apart from the above matters of high policy, a number of other reforms
or advances have been made during the past five years which are beyond
all criticism. Opinions may differ as to the details of some of these
services, but there is no dispute as to their immense contribution to
the fighting efficiency of the Navy. Some of these may be thus briefly
enumerated:
1. Complete reorganisation of the dockyards. [6,000 redundant workmen
discharged.]
2. Improved system of refits of ships, and limitation of number of
vessels absent at one time from any fleet for repair.
3. Introduction of the Royal Fleet Reserve, composed only of ratings
who have served for a period of years in the active service.
4. Improvements of Royal Naval Reserve, by enforcing periodical
training on board modern commissioned ships in place of obsolete hulks
or shore batteries.
5. Establishment and extension of Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve.
6. The establishment of a service of offensive mines and mine-laying
vessels.
7. The introduction of vessels for defensive mine-sweeping in harbours
and on the open sea.
8. A complete organisation of the service of auxiliary vessels for the
fleets in war.
9. The development of submarines, and the equipment of submarine bases
and all the necessary auxiliaries.
10. The proper organisation of the Destroyer Flotillas, with their
essential auxiliaries.
11. The enormous development of wireless telegraphy afloat, the
equipment of powerful shore stations round the coast and at the
Admiralty, and the introduction of a special corps of operators.
12. The experimental stage of aerial navigation entered upon.
13. The foundation of the Royal Naval War College and its development.
14. The establishment of Signal Schools at each port.
15. The establishment of a Navigation School.
16. Enormous advances in the Gunnery training and efficiency of the
Fleet.
17. Great improvements in torpedoes and in the torpedo training.
18. The introduction of a naval education and training for Engine Room
Artificers.
19. The introduction of the new rating of Mechanician for the Stoker
Class for engine-driving duties.
20. Complete reorganisation of the arrangements for mobilisation,
whereby every officer and man is always detailed by name for his
ship on mobilisation, and the mobilisation of the whole fleet can be
effected in a few hours.
21. The introduction of a complete system of intelligence of trade
movements throughout the world.
22. The stores of the Fleet put on a modern basis both
in the storehouses ashore and those carried in the ships
themselves--recognising the far different conditions now obtaining
to those of sailing-ship days of long voyages, necessitating larger
supplies being carried, and modern conditions of production and
supply enabling stores on distant stations and at home being rapidly
replenished. Some millions sterling were economised in this way with
increased efficiency, as the Fleet was supplied with up-to-date
articles; the only thing that gained by the age of the old system was
the rum.
23. The provision of repair ships, distilling plant, and attendant
auxiliaries to all fleets, and the preparation of plans elaborated in a
confidential handbook providing for all the auxiliary vessels required
in war.
In addition to all the above reforms great improvements have been
made in the conditions of service of officers and men, all tending to
increase contentment and thereby advance efficiency. Some of these are
as follows:
1. The introduction of two-year commissions, in place of three years
and often four [so that men were not so long away from their homes and
the crews of ships did not get stale].
2. Increases of pay to many grades of both officers and men--as
regards Commanders, the only increase since the rank was introduced.
3. Ship’s Bands provided by the Service, and a School of Music
established, and foreign musicians abolished.
4. The long-standing grievances of the men with regard to their
victualling removed. Improvements in cooking. Bakeries fitted on board
ships.
5. The Canteen system recognised and taken under Admiralty control, and
the old abuses abolished.
6. The clothing system reformed, and much expense saved to the men.
7. Great improvements effected in the position of Petty Officers.
8. An educational test instituted for advancement to Petty Officer.
9. Increase of pension granted to Chief Petty Officers.
10. Allotment stoppages abolished.
11. Allowances paid to men in lieu of victuals when on leave.
12. Promotions from the ranks to Commissioned Officer introduced.
13. Warrant rank introduced for the telegraphist, stoker, ship’s
steward, writer, ship’s police, and ship’s cook classes.
I print the foregoing from a return drawn up by an expert familiar with
details of the Service. To the general reader they will be chiefly
interesting as suggesting the immense and multifarious labours of
Admiral Fisher. It is not surprising that he found it necessary to
start work every morning at four o’clock.
APPENDIX II
SYNOPSIS OF LORD FISHER’S CAREER.
_Born January 25, 1841, at Rambodde, Ceylon._
Son of Captain William Fisher, 78th Highlanders, A.D.C. to the Governor
of Ceylon, and Sophia, daughter of A. Lambe, of New Bond Street, and
granddaughter of Alderman Boydell. His godmother was Lady Wilmot
Horton, wife of the Governor of Ceylon; and his godfather Sir Robert
Arbuthnot, Commanding the Forces in Ceylon.
_Entered the Royal Navy, June 13, 1854._
Received a nomination for the Navy from Admiral Sir William Parker, the
last of Nelson’s Captains. Joined his first ship, the “Victory,” at
Portsmouth, on July 12, 1854. The “Victory” was also the last ship to
fly his flag as an Admiral, October 20, 1904.
Served in Russian War, in Baltic (Medal) in “Calcutta” 84 guns.
Served in the China War, 1856–60, including the capture of Canton and
Peiho Forts. (China Medal, Canton and Taku Clasps.) Given command of
a small vessel by Admiral Sir James Hope, Commander-in-Chief, the
“Coromandel,” of which he was acting Captain at the age of 19.
Also served in “Highflyer,” Captain Shadwell; “Chesapeake,” Captain
Hilles; and “Furious,” Captain Oliver Jones. Returned home in 1861 from
the China Station.
_Lieutenant, November 4, 1860._
In passing for Lieutenant, he won the Beaufort Testimonial; and was
advanced to Mate on January 25, 1860, and confirmed as Lieutenant
within eleven months.
_March 28, 1863._
Appointed to H.M.S. “Warrior,” Captain the Hon. A. A. Cochrane, the
first seagoing ironclad, for gunnery duties. Served in her for three
and a half years.
_November 3, 1866._
Appointed to the Staff of H.M.S. “Excellent,” gunnery schoolship,
Portsmouth, Captain Arthur W. A. Hood.
_August 2, 1869._
Promoted to Commander, and appointed to the China flagship.
_September 19, 1872._
On returning from China in H.M.S. “Ocean,” was appointed to “Excellent”
for Torpedo Service. Started the “Vernon” as a Torpedo Schoolship.
Visited Fiume to arrange for the purchase of the Whitehead Torpedo.
_October 30, 1874._
Promoted to Captain, and re-appointed to “Excellent” for torpedo
service and instructional duties, remaining until 1876.
_November 16, 1876._
Appointed for special service in “Hercules,” flagship of Vice-Admiral
the Hon. Sir James Drummond, Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean.
_March 15, 1877._
Appointed Flag-Captain to Admiral Sir A. Cooper-Key,
Commander-in-Chief, North American Station, in the “Bellerophon.”
_June 7, 1878._
Appointed Flag-Captain to Admiral Sir A. Cooper-Key, Commanding the
Particular Service Squadron, in the “Hercules.”
_January 1, 1879._
Appointed in command of the “Pallas,” corvette, on Mediterranean
Station, returning home in July. President of a Committee for the
revision of the “Gunnery Manual of the Fleet.”
_September 25, 1879._
Appointed Flag-Captain to Vice-Admiral Sir Leopold M’Clintock,
Commander-in-Chief, North American Station, in the “Northampton.”
_January 18, 1881._
Appointed to command the “Inflexible,” the largest ship in the Navy.
_July 11, 1882._
Took part in the bombardment of Alexandria. Afterwards landed with the
Naval Brigade at Alexandria. Arranged for the first “armoured train,”
and commanded it in various skirmishes with the enemy.
_August 14, 1882._
Awarded the C.B. for service at Alexandria; also Egyptian Medal, with
Alexandria Clasp; Khedive’s Bronze Star; Order of Osmanieh, 3rd Class;
etc.
_November 9, 1882._
Invalided home through illness contracted on active service.
_April 6, 1883._
Appointed in command of “Excellent,” gunnery schoolship.
_1884._
Collaborated with Mr. W. T. Stead in the production of “The Truth About
the Navy,” resulting in increased Navy Estimates and the opening of a
new era in the provision of an adequate Fleet.
_November 1, 1886._
Appointed Director of Naval Ordnance, occupying this post four and a
half years. Carried out the transfer of the control of naval ordnance
from the War Office to the Admiralty.
_August 2, 1890._
Promoted to Rear-Admiral.
_May 21, 1891._
Appointed Admiral-Superintendent of Portsmouth Dockyard. Expedited
the completion of the “Royal Sovereign,” first of a new type of
battleships. Acted as host when the French Squadron under Admiral
Gervais visited the Dockyard, 1891.
_February 1, 1892._
Appointed Third Sea Lord and Controller of the Navy, and served in the
administrations of Lord George Hamilton, Earl Spencer, and Mr. G. J.
Goschen as First Lords; and Admirals Sir A. Hood, Sir A. H. Hoskins
and Sir F. W. Richards as First Sea Lords. During this period the firm
stand of the Admiralty Board brought about the resignation of Mr.
Gladstone, March 3, 1894.
_May 26, 1894._
Appointed K.C.B.
_May 8, 1896._
Promoted to Vice-Admiral.
_August 24, 1897._
Hoisted his flag in H.M.S. “Renown” as Commander-in-Chief, North
American Station.
_1899._
Attended the first Hague Peace Conference as Naval Delegate.
_July 1, 1899._
Appointed Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean Station, with his flag in
the “Renown,” remaining in this post until June 2nd, 1902. Admiral Lord
Beresford, Second-in-Command, says of this period in his “Memoirs”:
“While Vice-Admiral Sir John Fisher was Commander-in-Chief of the
Mediterranean Fleet, he greatly improved its fighting efficiency.
As a result of his representations, the stocks of coal at Malta and
Gibraltar were increased, the torpedo flotillas were strengthened, and
the new breakwaters at Malta were begun. Some of Sir John Fisher’s
reforms are confidential; but among his achievements which became
common knowledge, the following are notable: From a 12-knot Fleet with
breakdowns, he made a 15-knot Fleet without breakdowns; introduced
long range target practice, and instituted the Challenge Cup for heavy
gun shooting; instituted various war practices for officers and men;
invited, with excellent results, officers to formulate their opinions
upon cruising and battle formation; drew up complete instructions
for torpedo flotillas; exercised cruisers in towing destroyers and
battleships in towing one another, thereby proving the utility of
the device for saving coal in an emergency; and generally carried
into execution Fleet exercises based, not on tradition, but on the
probabilities of war.”
_1900._
Received from the Sultan of Turkey the 1st Class of the Order of
Osmanieh.
_November 2, 1901._
Promoted to Admiral.
_June 5, 1902._
Returned to the Admiralty as Second Sea Lord, remaining until August
31, 1903, with Lord Selborne, First Lord, and Admiral Lord Walter Kerr,
First Sea Lord.
_June 26, 1902._
Appointed G.C.B. in the Coronation Honours List.
_December 25, 1902._
Launched new scheme of naval entry and education for officers, with
training colleges at Osborne and Dartmouth.
_May 2, 1903._
Made his first public speech at the Royal Academy Banquet.
_August 31, 1903._
Appointed Commander-in-Chief at Portsmouth, in order to supervise
personally the inauguration of his new education scheme at Osborne
College. Also energetically promoted the formation and development of
the first British submarine flotilla.
_November 7, 1903._
Appointed member of Committee with Lord Esher and Colonel Sir George
Clarke (Lord Sydenham) to reorganise the War Office on the lines of the
Admiralty Board.
_October 21, 1904._
Appointed First Sea Lord in Lord Selborne’s administration, and held
this office for five years and three months, the period of his greatest
activity and his preparation for a war with Germany. Some of the more
notable of his many reforms are dealt with in his “Memories.”
Also appointed, October 21, 1904, First and Principal Naval
Aide-de-Camp to King Edward VII.
_December 6, 1904._
Admiralty Memorandum on the Distribution of the Fleet, introducing
nucleus crew system for ships in reserve, and withdrawing obsolete
craft from foreign stations.
_January, 1905._
Committee appointed to inquire into the reorganisation of the
dockyards.
_March 6, 1905._
Appointment of Rear-Admiral Percy Scott to newly-created post of
Inspector of Target Practice. By this and other means, including the
service of Captain J. R. Jellicoe as Director of Naval Ordnance, the
marksmanship of the Navy was vastly improved.
_December 4, 1905._
Awarded the Order of Merit, and promoted by Special Order in Council to
be an additional Admiral of the Fleet, thus giving him five more years
on the active list in order to carry out his policy.
_February 10, 1906._
Launch of the “Dreadnought,” the first all-big-gun and turbine-driven
battleship, as recommended by the Admiralty Committee on Design
presided over by the First Sea Lord (Sir John Fisher).
_November, 1906._
Establishment of the Naval War College at Portsmouth.
_January, 1907._
Institution of a service of Fleet Auxiliaries--ammunition and store
ships, distilling and hospital ships, fleet repair ships, fishing
trawlers as, mine sweepers, etc., etc., etc., etc.,
_March, 1907._
Creation of a new Home Fleet, with the “Dreadnought” as flagship for
service in the North Sea.
_August, 1907._
New scheme of advancement and pay of naval ranks and ratings
introduced.
_September, 1907._
Establishment of a wireless telegraphy branch, and installation erected
on the Admiralty building.
_November 9, 1907._
Speech at the Lord Mayor’s Banquet, assuring his countrymen that they
could sleep quietly in their beds, and not be disturbed by invasion
bogeys.
_June, 1908._
Visited Reval with King Edward and Queen Alexandra on their visit to
the Tsar of Russia. Awarded G.C.V.O. on the conclusion of this cruise.
_June 17, 1908._
Created honorary LL.D. of Cambridge University.
_June, 1909._
Entertained delegates to Imperial Press Conference at a review of the
Fleet at Spithead, and a display of submarines, etc.
_December 7, 1909._
Raised to the peerage as Baron Fisher of Kilverstone, in the County of
Norfolk, after the manor bequeathed to his only son by the late Mr.
Josiah Vavasseur, C.B.
_January 25, 1910._
Retired from office of First Sea Lord, and was succeeded by Admiral of
the Fleet Sir Arthur Wilson, but remained a member of the Committee
of Imperial Defence. Recording his retirement in the First Lord’s
Memorandum, dated March 4, 1910, Mr. Reginald McKenna said: “The
measures which are associated with his name and have been adopted by
several successive Governments will prove of far-reaching and lasting
benefit to the Naval Service and the country.”
_March 10, 1910._
Took the oath and his seat in the House of Lords.
_May 24, 1912._
Visited at Naples by Mr. Churchill (the new First Lord) and Mr. Asquith
(Prime Minister).
_July 30, 1912._
Appointed Chairman of the Royal Commission on Oil Fuel and Oil Engines
for the Navy.
_September 7, 1914._
Appointed Honorary Colonel of the First Naval Brigade, Royal Naval
Division.
_October 30, 1914._
Recalled to the Admiralty as First Sea Lord.
_December 8, 1914._
Victory of Admiral Sir Doveton Sturdee over Admiral Count von Spee,
due to the prompt dispatch from England of two battle-cruisers
immediately on receipt of the news of the Coronel disaster. This was
the most decisive battle of the war, the German force being practically
annihilated.
_January 24, 1915._
Action of Sir David Beatty off the Dogger Bank, and sinking of the
“Blücher” another striking success of the battle-cruiser design.
_May 15, 1915._
Resignation as First Sea Lord over the Dardanelles question.
_July 5, 1915._
Appointed Chairman of the Board of Invention and Research.
_November 16, 1915._
First speech in House of Lords, in reference to Mr. Churchill’s speech
on the previous day, following the latter’s resignation from Cabinet.
_March 21, 1917._
Second speech in House of Lords, declaring his refusal to discuss
Dardanelles report during the war.
Awarded the Grand Cordon, with Paulownia, of the Japanese Order of the
Rising Sun.
_May 5, 1919._
Speech at the luncheon to Mr. Josephus Daniels, U.S. Naval Secretary.
_October 21_ (Trafalgar Day), _1919._
Publication of “Memories.”
_December 8_ (Falkland Islands Day), _1919._
Publication of “Records.”
FOOTNOTES
[1] _Was that our Sea Policy during the War?_ Did we not keep our Fleet
in cotton wool?
[2] These mottoes were painted up in my first ship, and I have had them
in every ship I have commanded since.
[3] ONE SAMPLE OUT OF MANY.--“Lord Tweedmouth and Mr. Robertson, having
tasted blood in their reduction of this year’s Estimates, are about
to strike a blow at the vital efficiency of the Navy. But what are we
to think of the naval officers on the Admiralty Board, men who cannot
plead the blindness and ignorance of their civilian colleagues? No one
knows better than Sir John Fisher the real nature and the inevitable
consequences of those acts to which he is a consenting party. And we
are not speaking at random when we assert that more than any one man,
the responsibility and the guilt for those reductions lies at his
door.” (The _Globe_, 21 Sept. 1906.)
[4] This was written in October, 1906.
[5] Not reprinted.
[6] There are two alternative schemes which may possibly be preferred
to this.
[7] The “Pegasus” was massacred at Zanzibar by the Germans!--F. 1919.
[8] For these predictions, see Letter to Lord Esher of (?) Jan., 1904
“Memories,” p. 173.
[9] See below, p. 181.
[10] Only this morning (November 5th, 1919), I have arranged to deal
with the drawings of a proposed Submersible Battleship carrying many
Big Guns, and clearly a practicable production.
[11] NOTE.--For steam raising 3 tons of oil are only equivalent to 4
tons of coal.
[12] The War stopped this.--F. 1919.
[13] This was said in 1910, and Mr. Asquith did leave office as here
predicted, in November, 1916, six years afterwards! And Sir John
Jellicoe took command of the Grand Fleet forty-eight hours before war
was declared, and the war with Germany did break out as predicted in
1914!
[14] These are the five Battle Cruisers built on my return to the
Admiralty in 1914–1915.
[15] This 18-in. gun was ordered by me without any of the usual
preliminary trials or any reference to any Gunnery Experts whatever.
The credit of its great success is due to Major Hadcock, Head of the
Elswick Ordnance Manufacturing Department, who also designed the 20-in.
gun for the fast Battleship Type which was to have been built had I
remained at the Admiralty in May, 1915.
A model of this 20-in. gun Battle Cruiser of 35 knots speed, was got
out before I left the Admiralty--three days more they would have
started building.
[16] See Chapter XV.
[17] The Foreign Office would not permit an efficient blockade, and
the outrageous release of vessels carrying war-helping cargoes caused
intense dissatisfaction in the fleet. No vessels ever passed our chain
of Cruisers without detention and examination.
[18] See Chapter XI.
INDEX
A
Action, 45
Adams, John Couch, 21
Admiralty House, Portsmouth, King Edward’s visit to, 24, 25
Admiralty policy: replies to criticisms, 98 _et seq._
Alcester, Lord, 30
Alderson, General, 54
Alexandria, bombardment of, 63, 256
Allan, Sir William, 88
Allenby, Lord, 241
American advance on Verdun, 246
Animated biscuits, 8
Arabi Pasha, 30
Arbuthnot, Sir Robert, 261
Archbishop and the pack of cards, the, 32
Armoured trains, institution of, 30
Ascension, the, 45
Asquith, Rt. Hon. H. H., 65, 179, 194, 214, 222, 242, 247, 269
Augé, M., 59
Automatic dropping mines for ocean use, 223–224
Aylesford, Lord, 3
B
Bacon, Admiral Sir Reginald, 128, 181;
on the big gun, 204–206
Baker, Mrs., Lord Fisher’s cook, 25;
invited to Buckingham Palace by King Edward, _ibid._
Balfour, Rt. Hon. A. J., 56, 65, 98
Balliol College, Oxford, 2
Baltic project, the, 217 _et seq._, 236, 241
Battle hymn of the American Republic, the, 77, 78
Beatty, Earl, 269
Beaufort Testimonial, won by Lord Fisher, 255
Beaumont, Admiral Sir Lewis, 30
Beilby, Sir George, 66
Benbow, Sir Henry, letter of, to Lord Fisher, 171
Beresford, Admiral Lord Charles, on training of officers and men for
the Navy, 167–170;
265
Bethmann-Hollweg, Herr von, 247
Bible, the, and other reflections, 38 _et seq._;
Wyclif’s translation, 43;
Tyndale’s, _ibid._;
Coverdale’s, 44;
Authorised, _ibid._;
Revised, _ibid._;
Cranmer’s “Great Bible,” _ibid._
Big gun, the, 204 _et seq._
Birthday Honours List a serial novel, 73
Black, Dr. Hugh, 38, 39, 77
Boar, Mr., 128
Board of Invention and Research, 193, 269
Bodmin, ancestral home of the Fishers, 3
Borden, Sir Robert, and hereditary titles in Canada, 72
Borkum, 245
Bourke, Mr. Maurice, 95
Boydell, Alderman, 1, 261
Boys, training of, for the Navy, 166
Brampton, Lord, 26, 31, 33
Brest, blockade of, 6
Bright, John, 69, 70
British submarines before and during the war, 186
Brodrick, Mr., 83
Browning, Sir Thomas, 201
Brutality in the Navy, former, 10
Buonaparte, Napoleon, Archbishop Whately, on, 100
Burnham, the first Lord, 31, 32, 33
“Buying up opportunities,” 61 _et seq._
Byron, Lord, 4
C
Cabman’s retort to the Admiral, the, 52
Campbell-Bannerman, Rt. Hon. Sir Henry, 31, 32, 51, 53
Canada and hereditary titles, Sir Robert Borden on, 73
Cape Observatory, the, 124
Capri, 41
Cawdor, Lord, 98
Cawdor memorandum, the, 107, 117
Childers, Rt. Hon. Hugh, 56, 139
China Seas, an Admiral’s unique manner of surveying, 9
Chinese, the ingenious, 9
Christmas Day joys on a man-of-war, 22
Churchill, Rt. Hon. Winston, 86, 179, 188, 191, 192, 194, 230, 269,
270
Clarke, Sir George, 266
Claverhouse, 78
Clemenceau, M., 240
Clive, Lord, 74
Coastguard, service, the, 120 _et seq._
Cochrane, Captain the Hon. A. A., 262
Collingwood, Admiral, 90, 92
Commerce, the submarine and, 183–185
Common entry into the Navy, 156 _et seq._
Congreve, William, 92
Cooper-Key, Admiral Sir A., 262
Corbett, Sir Julian, 34
Cornwallis, Admiral, 6, 90
Coronel, 261
Coverdale, Miles, 42, 43, 44
Cowdray, Lord, 196
Cranmer’s Bible, 43, 44
Cromwell, Thomas, 42, 43, 44
Currie, General, 74
Curzon, Earl, 193
D
Dalby, Prof., 193
Daniels, Mr. Josephus, 79;
report on oil-burning battleships, 203, 270
Davies, Mr., American dentist to the Kaiser, 75
Dawson, Sir Trevor, 189
Defects and repairs, 112 _et seq._
Democracy, 69 _et seq._
Deterding, Mr., 200, 201
Devonport, Viscount, 247
Diesel, Dr., 197
Dilke, Sir C., 102
Disraeli, Mr., 20
Diving methods of the Chinese, 9
Dogger Bank, 269
“Dreadnought” and “Invincible,” the, 109
Dreadnought battle cruiser, the, 232–233
Drumclog, 78
Drummond, Admiral the Hon. Sir James, 262
E
Eardley-Wilmot, Admiral Sir Sydney, 210
Edison, Mr., 21
Edmunds, Mr. Henry, 21, 22
Empress of Russia, Dowager, 29
“Equal opportunity for all,” 71 _et seq._
Esher, Lord, 11, 53, 173, 266
Essentials of sea fighting, the, 88 _et seq._
F
Falkland Islands, 66
Fisher Baronetcy, lapse of, 2
Fisher’s career, Lord, synopsis of, 255 _et seq._
Fisher, Sir Clement, 2, 3
Fisher, John, 2
Fisher, Rev. John, of Bodmin, 3;
four generations of, 4
Fisher, Mr. John Arbuthnot, 5
Fisher, Sir Robert, of Packington, 3
Fisher, Sir Robert, 4
Fisher, William, father of Lord Fisher, 261
Fisher, Mary, wife of Lord Aylesford, 3
Fisher motto, the, 2
Fiume, 256
“Fleet Street” conspiracy, a, 101
Foch, Marshal, 246
Forgiveness, 49
“Free Tank Day,” a, 22
Frederick the Great and the Seven Years’ War, 217, 218
Freedom of the seas nonsense, 75
French, Lord, 247
Friedland-Eylau campaign, 221
Friend, Lord Fisher’s letter to a, 76
Fushishima, Prince, 227
G
Gallifet, General, 31
Gard, Mr., 128
Gardiner, Mr. A. G., 11
Gaunt, John of, 96
Geddes, Sir Eric, 67, 246
German Emperor, the, 227, 230
German submarine menace, the, 65, 242
Gervais, Admiral, 264
Ginsburg, Dr., letter from Lord Fisher to, 41
Gladstone, Rt. Hon. W. E., final resignation of, 50 _et seq._, 264
Goodenough, Commodore, 211
Gould, Sir F. C., 36
Goschen, Rt. Hon. G. J., 264
Gracie, Mr., 128
Grafton, Richard, printer of the 1539 Bible, 38
Grant, Sir Hope, 17
Graves, Admiral, 7
“Great Silent Navy,” the, 95, 96
Greenwich Observatory, 124
Gunboat, the use of the, 116 _et seq._
Gunning, Miss, wife of two dukes and mother of four, 5, 6
H
Hadcock, Major A. G., 210, 233
Hamilton, Duke of, 5
Hamilton, Lady, 1, 6
Hamilton, Lord George, 54, 264
Hankey, Sir Maurice P. A., 173;
letter to Lord Fisher, 214–215;
letter of Lord Fisher to, 244
Hanotaux, M., 250
Harcourt, Lord, 53
Harcourt, Rt. Hon. Sir William, 51, 52, 53
Hawke, Admiral, Capt. A. T. Mahan on, 91
Hawkins, Sir Henry, _see_ Brampton, Lord
Hay, General, commandant of the Hythe School of Musketry, 17, 18
Heligoland Bight, a Naval Officer, on the battle of, 230, 245
Henderson, Wilfrid, 128
Hereditary titles out of date, 73;
Canada and, _ibid._
Hicks-Beach, Rt. Hon. Sir Michael, 51
Hilles, Captain, 261
Hole, Dean, 65
Hood, Captain Arthur W. A., 262
Hood, Sir H., 262, 264
Hope, Sir James, 14, 15, 261
Hopkins, Sir John, 170;
letter of, to Lord Fisher, _ibid._
Horton, Lady Wilmot, 4, 261
Hoskins, Sir A. H., 264
Hostile submarines, 183
House of Lords, Lord Fisher’s speech in, November, 1915, 86;
March 21, 1917, 87
How the Great War was carried on, 64 _et seq._
Howe, Julia Ward, 77
Hunger and thirst the way to Heaven, 10
Huxley, T. H., 42
Hythe School of Musketry, the, 17
I
Incarnation of Revolution, Lord Fisher as the, 20
Inge, Dean, 28, 47, 48
Ireland under military law, 31
J
Jackson, Sir Henry, 128
Jellicoe, Viscount, 128, 214, 215, 223, 226, 242, 243, 247, 267
Joffre, General, 247
“Jolly and Hustle,” 58 _et seq._
Jonah’s Gourd, 97 _et seq._
Jones, Captain Oliver, 15, 16, 17, 261
K
Keble, John, 19
Kelvin, Lord, 21, 61, 62, 63
Kerr, Lord Walter, 265
Kiel Canal, 214, 236, 237, 240
King Edward, 4, 24;
characteristic thoughtfulness of, 25–27;
his friendship for Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, 32;
57, 60, 180, 227, 266, 268
King William IV, 1
Kitchener, Lord, 54, 229, 243, 247
Knollys, Lord, 24
Knox, Sir Ralph, 55
Krupp, 196, 197, 199
L
Labouchere, Mr. Henry, 31, 32
Lambe, A., grandfather of Lord Fisher, 261
Lambe, Sophia, mother of Lord Fisher, 261
Lane, Jane, 2
Latimer, Bishop, 211
Laurier, Sir Wilfrid, 73
Law, Rt. Hon. Bonar, 244
League of Nations nonsense, 75
Lectures to officers of the Fleet, 89 _et seq._
“Let ’em all come,” 81
Lethbridge, Captain, 11
Leverrier, Urbain, 21
Lloyd George, Rt. Hon., 77;
letter from Lord Fisher to, 222–223; 230
Lloyd’s, 125
Lochee, Lord, _see_ Robertson, Mr. Edmund
“Loop Detection” scheme, the, 67
Lord Mayor’s Banquet 1907, the, Lord Fisher’s speech at, 83
Loreburn, Lord, 31
Lucy, Sir Henry, 36, 37
M
M’Clintock, Admiral Sir Leopold, 263
McCrea, Admiral, 59
McKechnie, Sir James, 189
McKenna, Rt. Hon. Reginald, 268
McLaughlin, A. C., Professor of History at Chicago, 69, 73, 74
Madden, Admiral, 128
Mahan, Capt. A. T., 90, 91;
on Nelson, 135
Marienbad, 29, 30, 32, 34, 36
Marlborough, Duke of, 74
Masterton-Smith, Sir J. E., 34
Memorandum on “Oil and its Fighting Attributes,” 200
Men, training of, for the Navy, 166
Mercantile Marine, the, 125
Midleton, Lord, _see_ Brodrick, Mr.
Midshipman and the Admiral, the, Mr. A. G. Gardiner’s story of, 11, 12
Midshipmen’s food, 6
Midshipmen past and present, comparison between, 7, 8
Miller, Captain, 11
Mitchell, Dr. Weir, 46
Mons, 246
“Monstrous” cruisers, the, 230, 232
Montecuccoli, Admiral Count, Austrian Minister of Marine, 180
Moresby, Admiral J., 248
Morley, Rt. Hon. John, on the Navy, 1893, 135
Morley, Lord, “Life of Gladstone,” 50
Motto, a Fisher, 2
N
Napoleon, 74, 129;
Friedland-Eylau campaign, 221;
231
Napoleon III, 179
Nargen, Island of, 8
National Lifeboat Institution as substitute for Coastguard, 123
Naval base reforms, 249 _et seq._
Naval candidate’s essay, a, 171–172
Naval captain and cavalry colonel, 17
Naval education, 156 _et seq._
Naval officer, a, on the battle of Heligoland Bight, 230
Navigation, ignorance of, in the Navy, 19
Navy, common entry into, 156 _et seq._
Navy in the war, the, 225 _et seq._
Nelson, 1, 6, 19, 81, 83, 129, 231, 232;
Capt. A. T. Mahan on, 135;
at Toulon, 136
Northbrook, Lord, 30
Nucleus crews, 147
O
Observatories, 124 _et seq._
Obsolete vessels, purging the Navy of, 139 _et seq._
Officers, training of, for the Navy, 166;
Lord Charles Beresford on, 167–170
Oil and oil engines, 189 _et seq._
Oil-burning battleships, Mr. Josephus Daniels’ report on, 203
Organisation for war, 133
Osborne system of Naval education, 7, 157, 248
“Out of date” fighting ships, 130
P
Paganini, 164
Page-Roberts, Dr., Dean of Salisbury, 49
Pakenham, Admiral, 110, 208
Parker, Admiral Sir William, last of Nelson’s captains, nominates
Lord Fisher for the Navy, 4, 261
Parkes, Mr. Oscar, 208
Parsons, Hon. Sir Charles, 66, 197
Peace, 74, 75
Pechili, Gulf of, 16
Penniless, friendless and forlorn, Lord Fisher’s entry into the Navy,
10
Plumer, General, 173
Pope, the, and Tyndale, 43, 44
Pre-war prophecy, a, 227
Public speeches, 79 _et seq._
Purging the Navy of obsolete vessels, 139 _et seq._
Q
Queen Alexandra, her kindly disposition, 26;
28, 29, 268
Queen Elizabeth, 135
Queen Elizabeth of Bohemia, 34
Queen Victoria, 30, 55
R
Rambodde, Ceylon, Lord Fisher’s birthplace, 255
Redesdale, Lord, 25, 26
Redmond, John, 31
Redmond, William, 31
Redundant dockyard workmen, discharge of, 56, 57
Resentment, 46
Retrospect, a (July, 1906), 150 _et seq._
Reval, 268
Rhodes, Cecil, 28
Richards, Sir Frederick, 50, 51;
cabman’s retort to, 52;
264
Ridley, Bishop, 211
Riga, 236
Ripon, Lord, 53
Roberts, Lord, 36
Robertson, Mr. Edmund, 98, 101 _n._
Robertson, Rev. F. W., of Brighton, 46, 47, 49
Robertson, Sir W., 247
Rombulow-Pearse, Lieut., 159
Royal Academy Banquet, 1903, the, Lord Fisher’s speech at, 79
Royal Dutch-Shell Combination, the, 201
Royal Marines, Lord Charles Beresford on the, 168–169
Rozhdestvensky, Admiral, 207
Rumbold, Sir H. G. M. (Ambassador at Vienna), 31, 33
Russell, Lord, 31, 32, 33
Russian catastrophe, the reason of the, 228
Russian War, the, 1854–5, 8
S
Saintly Naval captain, a, 12, 13, 14
Salisbury, Lord, 54, 55, 88
Salt-beef snuff-box, a, 10
Samuel, Sir Marcus, 193
Sankey, Mr., 77
Satanic captain, a, 15
Scapa Flow, 225–226, 243
Schwab, Mr., 187
Schwarzhoff, General Gross von, 55
Science, contempt for, in the Navy, 19
Scott, Admiral Percy, 80, 81, 267
Sea of Japan, battle of, 111
Sea-gull, a delicacy, 16
Secrecy and secretiveness, 93 _et seq._
Selborne, Lord, 101;
letter of Sir John Fisher to, 127; 265, 266
Seven Years’ War, the, 217, 218, 222
Shadwell, Captain, 12, 13, 14, 261
Shadwell, Sir Lancelot, last Vice-Chancellor of England, 12
Shand, Lord, 31, 33
Ship-building and dockyard workers, 56 _et seq._
Siegel, Admiral von, 55
“Sleep quiet in your beds,” speech at Lord Mayor’s banquet, 1907, 85
Smith, Rt. Hon. W. H., 54
“Snail and Tortoise Party,” the, 212
Snuff-box of salt beef, 10
Some predictions, 211
“Sow the North Sea with mines,” Lord Fisher’s advice in 1914, 237–239
Spee, Admiral von, 66, 206, 232, 233, 269
Spencer, Earl, 50, 51, 52, 264
Spencer, Herbert, 42
Staal, M. de, 55
Standard Oil Trust, America, 201
State education in the Navy, 160–162
Stead, Mr. W. T., 52, 53, 55;
on Lord Fisher’s great naval reforms, 253 _et seq._;
263
Stewart, Mr., “Jolly and Hustle,” 61
Stolypin, M., 222
Sturdee, Admiral Sir Doveton, 269
Submarine boat, the, 82
Submarine and commerce, the, 183–185
Submarines, 173 _et seq._
Submarines and oil fuel, 179–181
Submarines, British, before and during the war, 186
Subsidiary services of war, 148 _et seq._
Swan, Mr., inventor of the incandescent light, 21
Sydenham, Lord, _see_ Clarke, Sir George.
Sylt, 245
T
Taylor, Bishop Jeremy, 46
Tennyson-d’Eyncourt, Sir Eustace, 208
Tepl, monks’ colony at, 29
Thackeray, 79
“The World, the Flesh, and the Devil,” 33
Thomson, Sir J. J., O.M., 65
Thurlow, Major, 1
Thursfield, Mr. J. R., 160
Tirpitz, Admiral von, 225, 247
Titles, hereditary, and Canada, 73
Togo, Admiral, 110, 174, 207, 226, 227
Training of boys for the Navy, 166
Training of men for the Navy, 166;
Lord Charles Beresford on the, 167–170
Training of officers for the Navy, 166, 167–169
Tsar of Russia, 268
Tweedmouth, Lord, 98, 101 _n._
Twiss, General, 89
Two-Power standard, the, 13, 105
Tyndale, John, 42, 43, 44
U
Uruguay, 119
Use of the gunboat, the, 116 _et seq._
V
Vavasseur, Mr. Josiah, 268
Verdun, 5;
American advance on, 246
“Victory,” the, Lord Fisher’s first and last ship, 4, 5
Villeneuve, Admiral, 89
Vladivostok, 110, 111
W
War, organisation for, 133
War, subsidiary services of, 148 _et seq._
Warsaw, Napoleon at, 129
Watch, a historic, 3
Watson, Sir William, 78
Way to Victory, the, Lord Fisher’s letters to the Prime Minister,
234–236
Wellington, Lord, 74
Wesley, John, 46
Whately, Archbishop, 99, 100
Whitchurch, Edward, printer of the 1539 Bible, 38
Whitehead torpedo, 177, 262
Wilson, Sir Arthur, 268
Wilson, President, 77
Winchester, Bishop of, 114
Wireless Telegraphy, 82
Wotton, Sir Henry, 34
Wyclif, John, 42, 43
Y
Yamamoto, Admiral, 226
Yates, Edmund, 31, 32
Youthful midshipmen, advantage of, 5, 7;
arduous lives of, 6
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Transcriber’s Notes
Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a
predominant preference was found in the original book; otherwise they
were not changed.
Simple typographical errors were corrected; unbalanced quotation
marks were remedied when the change was obvious, and otherwise left
unbalanced.
Illustrations in this eBook have been positioned between paragraphs
and outside quotations. In versions of this eBook that support
hyperlinks, the page references in the List of Illustrations lead to
the corresponding illustrations.
Footnotes, originally at the bottoms of the pages that referenced them,
have been sequentially renumbered and moved to the end of the book,
just before the Index.
The index was not checked for proper alphabetization or correct page
references.